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Reflections on Racism, from IY(UK) Members
Reflections on Racism and micro-aggressions in Iyengar yoga
Photography: Klaus Nielsen from Pexels
Last year the murder of George Floyd had a global effect, which was felt by many of our members, and resulted in the formation of Iyengar Yoga in Action, the campaigning organisation. It also catalysed IY(UK) to set up a new Equity Standing Committee (see p. 66), which will hopefully go on to address issues that our organisation, and many others, want to tackle head on. The following accounts* are written by two IY(UK) members, and are based on their personal experiences. As Charlotte Everitt, our new Chair, states on p. 61, it is key that "everyone can access and feel welcome in Iyengar yoga". In order to make our organisation truly anti-racist, every member needs to do their part.
*These pieces have been kept anonymous in order to discourage speculation as to the identity of any of the people mentioned.
A Letter to the IY(UK)
As a mixed-race Black woman, I should like to share some of my experiences of racism, prejudices, stereotyping and inappropriate language that I have heard or experienced in Iyengar yoga classes in the UK, within recent times. The death of George Floyd galvanised some practitioners within the Iyengar community to look at equity issues within yoga. Others do not believe this is a problem within Iyengar yoga, or have bemoaned the "bringing of politics" into yoga. For me, racism and racial stereotyping are lived experiences within the Iyengar yoga classes and spaces I have attended. They are not "politics" that I can avoid. Indeed racism raises its head in yoga spaces. I list below a few of the more overt comments and examples of stereotyping I have heard in Iyengar Yoga classes and spaces in the UK.
• You look like a line of slitty-eyed China-men • Overused tropes about bendy, lazy
Indian people • Overused tropes about bendy Chinese people who work too hard • Having my body pointed to as an example of an 'African' body on a number of occasions This racial stereotyping not only impacts negatively on students and teachers of colour, but importantly, racialised generalisations are inaccurate, ignorant, uninformative, reductive and dehumanising, and usually only applied to those who do not belong to the majority 'white' student/ teacher group. White people are allowed to be their diverse, individual selves, whereas BIPOC (Black, Indigenous People of Colour) students are reduced to stereotypes, whether these appear to be positive or negative. Such stereotyping is ignorant and unethical and diminishes the authority of any Iyengar teacher who makes such comments and tarnishes the name of Iyengar yoga. To expand a little. Africa is a vast continent when compared to either Europe or America, with many peoples. It is at least three times the size of Europe and I don't hear generalisations about the 'European' body type. Additionally, country of birth, environment and lifestyle have a profound effect on a person's makeup – physical, spiritual and emotional. India itself is huge and populous, comprised of different peoples with different religions, cultural practices and changing lifestyles. Ditto China. Some of the wealthier people in India itself are getting the same stiffnesses and weight issues that affect Europeans (Abhijata herself has talked about this). A sedentary, mixed-race Black person born in the UK, like me, will have a very different body (and different gene pool) to, say, an Amhara woman who walks for miles in the Simien mountains. There is a bitter irony to teachers referring to my 'African' body type, as immediate access to my African heritage is lost to me, because of the slave trade. I have no idea from whereabouts in that vast continent that side of my lineage comes. I don't even know my family names on that side. My surname is the name of the person who "owned" my predecessors. Were my ancestors Fulani, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Afar, Mande, Akan, or any other of the myriad of peoples who have inhabited, crossed and been stolen from that vast continent? I have no idea. On my British side, I can trace my ancestors back for generations. Everything from Africa is lost to me. It therefore somewhat bemuses me that my ancestry is so clear to others. Given that Iyengar yoga classes in the UK are not the most diverse of places, I cannot imagine that many Iyengar yoga teachers in the UK have extensive experience of black or brown bodies, or fully appreciate that skin colour is only ever part of the story. The next time a teacher refers to my African body, as my lineage is so clear to them, I will ask them for answers. It will save me the expense of paying for a genetic test.
I strongly believe we should be taught to teach the person in front of us, i.e. the unique combination of body, mind and spirit that stands before us, and that this is possible without inaccurate stereotypes. I think it should be basic to our training to look for alignment within different body types, to be accurate about what action we want a person to experience, to understand that each action may look different in different students, to understand that each student will have āsanas they find more difficult, or easier, without resorting to crass and/ or racialised generalisations. We do need to listen to our students when they say their body (or mind or spirit) doesn't easily do something and offer alternatives, rather than making them feel somehow lacking or resorting to crass stereotyping. I have little idea what the senior teacher who referred to my 'African body' wanted me to achieve or correct. I assume it was perhaps an exaggerated lumbar curve, a pelvis that spills forward, stiff feet with fallen arches and seemingly a pelvis-to-femur configuration that makes the external rotation of the thigh required for some of the basic standings very difficult. There is no need to mention race to describe these things and they exist in European
students too. For my part, I have not yet taught a BIPOC student with a body that reflects my own difficulties.
In addition to my experiences of racism within Iyengar classes and the blinding ignorance of racial stereotyping, I have had the misfortune recently to hear one qualified Iyengar yoga teacher tell a supposedly jolly tale about a 'cripple' and another qualified Iyengar yoga teacher have a little joke about a 'dwarf'. On both occasions no harm was intended but such language is now, at the kindest interpretation, regarded as old-fashioned, and to many, including myself, just downright offensive. I believe that IY(UK) has an ethical and moral duty to make diversity and equity part of our teacher training and continuing professional development (CPD). The new mentoring manual states "all teachers should be aware of Equality, Diversion and Inclusion" and "know what constitutes discrimination". My own experiences show that this is not currently the case. Without this becoming embedded in our training and CPD, all the reading of the texts is rendered meaningless and Iyengar yoga in the UK runs the risk of becoming, at best, irrelevant, and at worst, morally bankrupt. It is imperative for us as yoga teachers to deal with racism and all other forms of discrimination both within ourselves and in society. Doing anything other is remaining in ignorance and causing harm which goes against the yamas and niyamas.
ANOTHER RESPONSE: I have a large curvature in my lower back. This is exacerbated by what my friend affectionately calls my 'African assets'. I really don't mind him saying that and wouldn't ever take it as anything other than friendly banter, but of course now we have to be careful of such comments and phrases. Because of this feature, I am constantly told in classes to "tuck my tail-bone in", even by senior teachers. Now I've been practising yoga for over 25 years. You would think that, given that I've reached a certain level of competency, I could be credited with understanding what this instruction means; and if I'm not achieving the result that the teacher expects, that there may be an underlying reason for that. However, it persists in Tāḍāsana and Śīrṣāsana, and in Uttānāsana I'm told to bring my weight further forward, so as not to have my buttocks behind my heels.
This was such an issue, that I asked my teachertrainer to get advice on the subject. She consulted a senior teacher of colour in the US and subsequently wrote a note to the effect that she vouched for my understanding of how the body should work in these poses. As it was, I didn't have to sit the practical exam as it was cancelled due to Covid. However, I've never experienced any overt form of racism. But I do feel that anyone who doesn't have the same level of confidence (to say: "my body doesn't do that") – or tolerance to ignore or humour the comments – would easily be put off coming back to an Iyengar class. It would benefit Iyengar yoga and all body shapes, types and sizes if the Iyengar system of alignment developed some understanding of how all bodies don't perform in the same way, for a huge number of reasons. The 'one alignment fits all' issue is the reason that I joined the Diversity group (DIWG) in the first place.
